LOCKHART, JOHN GIBSON, a critical and miscellaneous writer of considerable power and celebrity, was born in the manse or parsonage of Cambusnethan, county of Lanark, in the year 1794. He was the first son by the second marriage of the Rev. John Lockhart, minister of Cambusnethan, with Elizabeth Gibson, daughter of the Rev. Mr Gibson, minister of St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. The father of Mr Lockhart was afterwards appointed to the College Church, Glasgow, and in this city John received his first education. He distinguished himself at college, and obtained one of the valuable bursaries (worth about £150 per annum) known as Snell's Exhibitions, in virtue
of which he proceeded to Balliol College, Oxford. He retired from the university with the degree of LL.B., and applied himself to the study of Scottish law. He was called to the bar in 1816, but soon found that he was not calculated to excel as an advocate. He was more attached to literature than to law, and nature had denied him the fluency and self-possession necessary for success in addressing a court or jury. His contemporaries saw with surprise and pain the accomplished, handsome, carefully-dressed advocate, who had been engaged in quizzing his associates around the court table, or in drawing clever caricature sketches with his pen, rise up in trepidation to "state a case,"—how he hammered out a few words, got confused, plunged deeper at every step, and at length, fairly losing himself, sat down in an agony of vexation. A more congenial field was opened up by the establishment of Blackwood's Magazine in 1817, and for a period of seven or eight years there were few numbers of that periodical which did not contain some pungent or graceful article from the pen of Mr Lockhart. He tried all styles and subjects; he translated from the German and Spanish, reviewed books, indited bitter political articles, full of Oxford Toryism and scholarship, against all Whigs and Cockneys; and no one excelled him either in cold and stinging sarcasm, or in slashing invective. He also sketched scenes and characters with a milder hand, and composed occasional copies of verses, some of which breathed the inspiration of genuine poetry. His position in society was benefited by his marriage, 29th April 1820, with the eldest daughter of Sir Walter Scott. Previous to this Mr Lockhart had, in conjunction with his friend Mr (afterwards Professor) Wilson, written Peter's Letters to his Kingfolk, 3 volumes—a lively but exaggerated picture of Scottish society, character, and manners, including portraits of Scott, Jeffrey, Chalmers, &c. In 1821 appeared his novel of Valerius, an exquisite Roman story; in 1822, Adam Blair, a Scottish tale of domestic life, containing some powerful painting of the passions; in 1823, a longer novel in 3 volumes, Reginald Dalton, delineating English and especially university life; also a translation of Ancient Spanish Ballads, remarkable for elegance of style and versification; and, in 1824, another novel in one volume, somewhat in the style of Godwin, entitled Matthew Wald. In 1825 Mr Lockhart succeeded to the editorship of the Quarterly Review, which he continued to conduct till within a short period of his death. His other works were,—a Life of Burns, written for Constable's Miscellany, and published in 1828; a Life of Napoleon, contributed to Murray's Family Library; and, in 1836, his magnum opus, the Life of Sir Walter Scott, which, as originally published, extended to 7 volumes 8vo. This was a work of great difficulty and delicacy. He had to fill a broad canvas with living or recent characters, and with contemporary events. He had to enter a critical arena preoccupied by the greatest names of the age, and to deal with affairs of active life and business, as well as with matters of intellect and imagination. He aimed at strict impartiality; and we have seen a private letter from him, in which he declared that he wrote as if the spirit of Scott, intent only upon truth, looked down upon him at the moment of composition. The alloy of human error, however, could not be absent, and some grave and serious blemishes stained the work. In relating Scott's business transactions, not only was too great prominence given to them, but manifest injustice was done to the Ballantynes, the early associates and friends of the illustrious novelist. Wanton offence and needless pain were also given to other parties by partial and incorrect statements, which no doubt sprung from the author's desire to bring out Scott in bold relief, and to impart variety and vivacity to the memoir. The work, however, is really a great one. We recognise in it Lockhart's manly and independent tone of description, his
Lockerby true and penetrating estimate of life and conduct, and the masterly powers of description and analysis which he brought to his task. As a mere literary work, in style and treatment, it must rank in the first class; and as a biography, for fulness and interest, it is only surpassed by Boswell's Life of Johnson. Mr Lockhart's Life of Burns is an able little work, full of fine moral and picturesque delineation. In the Quarterly Review he seemed also to select biography as his chosen field. His critical sketches of Theodore Hook, Campbell, Southey, &c., display the same characteristics as his elaborate works,—the quick eye and firm hand, that never hesitated to use the scalpel freely lest too deep a wound might be inflicted, are visible in the slightest of these dissections of character and conduct. Mr Lockhart's tact and management were no less manifest in the general variety and attractive character of the Review while it was under his charge. We meddle not with its political disquisitions, which were often narrow and bitter enough; but he unquestionably made this powerful organ of a party keep pace not only with the literature, the science, and discovery of the age, but with its social tastes, amusements, and fashion. In 1843 Sir Robert Peel rewarded Mr Lockhart with the sinecure appointment of auditor of the duchy of Cornwall, worth £400 per annum.
The latter years of Mr Lockhart's life were not happy or genial. He had survived his wife and all the other children of Sir Walter Scott. His own family consisted of two sons and a daughter; both his sons predeceased him, but his daughter (married to Mr Hope Scott of Abbotsford) still lives to continue the illustrious line of Scott. Irregular health and study impaired Lockhart's strength, and induced habits of indolence, while his literary ardour was still strong within him, and flashed out at intervals. As he said of Campbell, "A high and supereminent prize seemed still within his reach, but this spur was overmastered by the chill of tremor and the creeping of laziness." He endeavoured, by a winter in Italy, to renovate his shattered constitution, and at first the result was favourable. He returned somewhat invigorated, though feeling acutely that premature old age had set in. He had intended never again to visit Abbotsford after Scott's death; but, in the desolation of his last days, when his spirit was broken and health had utterly fled, he turned to it once more, and his parting spirit was soothed by the attentions of filial duty and tenderness amidst those scenes, immortalized by genius, which had witnessed his youthful ambition and happiness. He died at Abbotsford on the 25th November 1854, having shortly before completed his sixtieth year. (n.c.—s.)